But this is not the view of a certain human being. A man by the name of David H Thoreau...
"So you see, while you may be a part of the ant colony, so to speak, you are all individuals"
"Yeah! We're all unique! Just like everyone else!"
A small group chuckle with laughter. They're watching that crazy man on the street corner again. The one who aims to instil a sense of belief into all our lives, because we are all apparently lacking belief in ourselves.
"Thank you, sir. Everyone is indeed unique. We are not all mindless zombies chained to our desks. We are not forced into this life. We make our own choices, and I am choosing to tell this to you all here today. Stand up and fight this system of control that is work and start living. Get out of this chain and be yourself"
"You're a nutcase, mate!"
Another satisfied customer. There are many around here it seems. Here, in a city like this, every life is programmed to get an education and a job, though not necessarily in that order. There are some who want to break through this programming and experience what it's like on the outside of work, and the outside of life as we know it. Those like David...
The Heligo could only be described as a rust bucket. Once though, she was the most majestic ship Zion had seen. A strong yet agile ship - pleasing to the eye - even if it was made of cold steel and not much else.
No matter what it looked like now though, four warriors called it home. Captain Forseti, was a wise and persuasive man in his late 30s, and powerfully built but only so he could keep fit and healthy. His crew looked up to him like the older brother they never had. The other brother they always wanted to be to someone else.
Heimdall would say that he is the guardian of his captain, watching over him in both worlds – an easy task for an Insomniac. He is a man who tries to blend in and show respect to everyone. Ask first, fight later.
Vidar on the other hand is somewhat the opposite. He manages to be stylish both inside and outside of the Matrix, no matter what materials are at hand that he could wear, and always stands out in a crowd. He is very much a straight warrior, fighting what needs to be fought, when it needs to be fought.
Finally, Nescio, the Heligo's operator, born and raised in Zion like almost every other Operator. A true hacker in every sense of the word and a sour loser, should anyone be good enough to beat him.
Rarely separated, this crew has fought through everything the machines have thrown against them - even though they are fighting from within the rusty innards of a rust bucket.
Today, if such a thing as today still exists, the crew were not fighting. They were watching. The only thing on TV was green and full of unrecognisable characters, but that didn't matter. It still had its moments.
"Why does he do this day in, day out"
"Perhaps he hopes to find someone like him. Someone like us"
"Tell me we aren't going in to get him"
"I can't say that. He wants out and we're going to get him out"
"How do you know he wants out"
"He knows that it isn't reality that bites, but his perception of it. He can see something is wrong with his world, and it's our job to show him that he's right"
"You can't be serious. You're looking way too much into this. He doesn't even know about the Matrix - his life involves shouting on a street corner"
"That may be. But eventually, he will shout loud enough for the system to hear, and the system will deal with him. We must reach him before the system"
"Before the system? What, you mean the Agents"
"Precisely"
"You know I hate that part Forseti"
"They hate you too, Heimdall"
"That really is comforting"
"Glad I could help."
The hunt is on.
A police officer is a frequent sight for David. Wherever he goes, the police are bound to follow. Today was one of those days where they would say the same old "Excuse me, sir, would you mind telling me why you are disturbing the peace" speech, to which David would reply "Because I have something to say." Or at least, that's the way the conversation started...
"You cannot have anything of value to say"
"Nevertheless I have a right to say it"
"Your words are not appropriate. You are disturbing the rest of us and what you have to say cannot possibly be worth disturbing us. You must stop this at once"
"I am not protesting against you people"
"Nor are you co-operating with us."
The conversation ended, as did the shining sunlight in David's eyes, and his world quickly faded to black and his head began to throb. He had to admire the thinking of that officer for knocking him out. He can't disturb the peace when he's not even conscious...
Hours passed and David woke up in a cell. The ramblings of a drunken man could be heard down the corridor, as could the shouting of an aggressive youth at the front desk. David's head felt a little groggy as he was pulled out and eventually set free. I guess the system felt he learnt his lesson during his brief time here. After a knock on the head its unlikely David will ever go out to a street corner and return to his ways.
Yeah right.
"Listen to me. All you have to do is learn to look at the world the way I have learned to look at it. The way we must look at it and not the way we have been told to look at it. Why do you accept what you see? Why don't you look past the surface and see things for what they really are"
"Because that is not the way their minds work, Akio"
"What!"
Out of nowhere, a tall man in a black leather jacket that stopped just above the knees stood before David. He was stylish from head to toe, but nothing was over the top. David would have looked into this mans eyes, had he not been wearing dark glasses with a green tint.
"How do you know that name? Nobody knows that name"
"We've been following you and your Internet persona everywhere for some time now, Akio. It is time for you to leave this place. It's time for you to come with us."
The figure extended his left arm outwards, motioning behind him, where two more stylish figures wait near a parked car – one wearing a sharp black suit, the other in a dark red motorcycle jacket.
"Who... who are you people"
"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, Akio, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Come and listen to the music you hear"
"What? I know I don't have taste in music but that doesn't mean I need to get into a car with a bunch of strangers"
"Forseti! We've got company!"
The figure in the suit shouts out, the other leaps into the car and starts the engine. A wail of sirens can be heard a few blocks away.
"Akio, the time has come. Those sirens are for you"
"What did I do"
"It's not what you have done, but what you may do. You must get in the car."
A police car screams around the corner, heading straight for David. Pedestrians scatter in all directions. This Forseti, whoever he is, still stands in front of him, as calm as one could possibly be - unlike David, who is now close to panicking. It's not everyday that the police bother sending in police cars to get him to stop talking. Well, actually it's never happened before. This is serious.
Forseti remains rooted to the floor, while David starts to get a little hot under the collar. The police car just clips another car, slowing it down enough for these mysterious figures.
"Go! Now!"
And David runs, sprinting for the figure hurrying him towards their car. He has a sudden look over his shoulder to see Forseti's jacket catch the wind, and his arms extend with two handguns aimed at the police car.
"Is he crazy! He'll go to prison"
"He's spent most of his life in prison"
"What did he do"
"Nothing. He's innocent, just like the rest of us"
"Wha-? I don't"
"Get in!"
David's pulled into the back seat of the car as the police car explodes a few meters in front. He looks out of the window to see chunks of metal and black smoke where his body once stood – and there is no sign of Forseti.
Eventually the sounds die down, and the smoke disperses a little. The flames still flicker and pedestrians are calling for help on their mobiles. But there is still no sign of Forseti. David starts to open the car door. In a blur, he is pulled back into the middle of the car as a fist smashes through his window.
"What the hell"
"Agent"
"A what!"
David stares out the now broken window to see a man in a green suit and dark glasses about to lean in and grab him. Over his head, the man who pulled him backwards holds a handgun, ready to shoot, but there is no need for it as the Agents' head jerks and slumps down the side of the car. Behind him stands Forseti, smoking gun in hand, jacket gently billowing in the wind.
The car revs into action, the smell of burning rubber starts to fill the air and Forseti jumps into the front seat. They're off.
"Can anyone tell me what is going on? Namely why you blew up a police car and then shot a guy in the back?"
He pokes his head out of the window to look back at the body of the Agent.
"And... what the... why has he turned into a business woman? Anyone"
"Not now, Akio. We must get you out of here"
"Yeah, of course. Because it's all my fault..."
The car journey lasted most of the afternoon. The longer it went on the older the city seemed to be, and eventually the buildings appeared to be falling apart and streets became makeshift rubbish bins.
This is a place David had never seen in person, though he'd certainly heard about it. He wasn't rich enough to live in the heart of the city, but he did have a decent apartment in an average city block. An apartment block he hasn't seen in days, after having been caught up in all of this – whatever this was.
The journey had been largely silent. David just drifted off and stared out of the broken window, reflecting on what had happened. He picked out a few words of a telephone conversation, but he didn't care what they said.
"Who's going to look after my cat? He's been"
"Ill, yes we know, Akio. He's getting old and has heart problems"
"So what's going to happen to him"
"It depends what happens to you. We're here."
David had no time to work out what that meant, as the car had pulled into an alley and stopped. Everyone got out of the car and David quickly followed, unsure of it all.
The metal door was pulled open and everyone stepped in, through the hallway and up a few sets of stairs. The wallpaper got worse, most of the lights didn't work and nobody knew what the original colour of the floor was, but then nobody but David cared.
The group stepped into a room 47, which David guessed would have been exactly the same as the rooms before it and after it. What David didn't expect was to see room 47 with holes in the walls to the rooms beside it, and the whole placed full of wires and weird looking technology.
Forseti motioned Akio towards two chairs while the other two men began to get to work on the contraptions in the next room.
"Tell me. What do you see when you look on life"
"I... I see life. I see people walk to work, I see people eating, I see cars drive endlessly down streets"
"What do you feel"
"I feel there is something more to it all."
The conversation continued in this mystic fashion. Voices could be heard from the other room, the odd loud sound of the outside world could be heard through the boarded up window, but David was just trying to focus on why this Foresti was asking him all this.
"I want to tell you the truth... But I do not know if you are ready for it"
"The truth? About what"
"Everything here. All of this. Everything you know"
"What is the truth"
"I cannot tell you"
"But I'm ready for it"
"Then I can show it to you, if you are ready. You take the blue pill, this story ends and you wake up in your bed, your cat at your feet and the sounds of the city outside the window and believe what you want to believe."
His left hand extends and opens to reveal a small blue pill. David looks on, slightly confused as to what is going on here.
"You take the red pill, and I show you what you have always felt but never seen."
His other hand extends and opens, true to his words revealing a red pill. David's gaze moves towards the dirty floorboards, as his sits motionless, contemplating it all.
"Is it true that men have become tools of their tools? That we are no longer in control"
"Yes. To a certain extent. Akio, I am offering what you want to know"
"But do I really want it"
"That is your choice to make."
David's hands move up to cover his face, eventually resting them on his cheeks, his elbows now being pushed into the armrests of the chair to support his head.
"You have the chance to live the life you have imagined living, Akio. What will you do?"
There is no response. Instead, slowly, David extends his right arm and hovers it over the blue pill. He stares at it, his fingers twitching slightly.
"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams."
David looks up towards Foresti, and moves his hand to pick up the red pill. He stares at it for a few moments, and then looks towards a glass on the small desk to the side of the room, eventually picking it up.
"A toast to the truth."
And Foresti smiles.